MY BLOG, 1ST DECEMBER 2017

My suitcase is unpacked, washing done, summer shirts are well and truly stored away, and woolly jumpers are out, it’s official - I’m back in England, and it’s freezing.

I’ve been away with the team at a training camp in Mallorca, my first real training sessions since the fall, and the concussion that came with it, and it’s good to be back.

The training camp went well, a lot better than I thought. I expected to be a little rusty and I didn’t expect to have anywhere near the fitness I did. Don’t get me wrong, I was still creeping at times but maybe, even though I hate to admit it, Ed Clancy was right – the few weeks out did do me good.

The temperature in Mallorca was just above 20 degrees in the day and it dropped down to just below 10 at night, perfect weather for riding and it felt great to be back on the bike.

We got most of the hard work out the way early morning before the temperature peaked, but it’s always hard adapting to riding in a hotter climate, so naturally the first few days were the toughest.

While training away you tend to be so tired that any down time you get is spent recovering. That allowed me to re-acquaint myself with a guilty old pleasure - Mario Kart! I rediscovered the game on my laptop this week after finding I still had the original version. It’s like riding a bike, you never lose it. Trust me, I never lost either.

I knew I’d be busy riding for most of my stay in Mallorca, and if I wasn’t riding I’d be resting, so I wasn’t going to have time to find myself a local coffee shop.

Thanks to my pals down at Workshop coffee, they made sure I didn’t have to drink the hotels instant coffee sachets by hooking me up with a very limited Kenyan coffee that was processed in two different ways.

I’m now looking forward to the rest of the season, I’ve got a refreshed outlook and a very positive, focused mentality.

Last weekend I returned to serious - well “semi-serious” - riding at the London Revolution where things weren’t quite as bad or tough as I feared. I get super excited for Revs events, they are amazing to be a part of and with it being in London as well – one of my favourite tracks - it was great to be back racing.

This weekend, the Revolution moves on to Glasgow which will be another chance to gauge my fitness before a couple of weeks of hard training over the Christmas period. December is never a busy month for me in terms of racing - the focus tends to be on hard training - so I’m looking to focus on a few new projects.

I’ve been thinking for months now about doing a Vlog on coffee, so throughout December my aim is to get a video up and see what you guys think.